Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
~30,000 B.C. North America Asian hunter-gatherers had crossed over the frozen Bering Strait to become first
humans in North America.
~10,000 B.C. South America Those who crossed over on Bering Strait into North America had traveled as far
south as Argentina by this point.
~6,000 B.C. Europe End of land bridge between Britain and continental Europe. Britain becomes an
island.
~4,500 B.C. Brittany (France) The megalithic structures of Carnac were built.
~3,000 B.C. England The main stones of Stonehenge are put into place.
~1,000-800 B.C. present-day Italy The Vestini tribe put the stones of Fossa in place.
~280 B.C. Samos Aristarchus suggests the Earth revolves around the Sun. He provides first estimation
(Alexandria) of Earth-Sun distance.
~240 B.C. Cyrene (now Eratosthenes measures the circumference of the earth with surprising accuracy!
Shahhat, Libya)
~130 B.C. Greece Hipparchus develops the first acccurate star map and star catalogue with over 850
of the brightest stars.
45 B.C. Roman Empire Introduction of the Julian calendar, a purely solar calendar, to the Roman Empire.
140 A.D. Greece Ptolemy suggests geocentric theory of the universe in famous work Mathematike
Syntaxis.
570 A.D. Middle East Muhammad, founder of the Islamic religion, was born in 570 A.D. in Mecca. He
died in 632 A.D.
1120 A.D. Egypt Construction of an observatory in Cairo was begun in 1120 A.D. This is possibly
the first observatory built in Medieval Islam. Unfortunately, the patron of the
observatory was found guilty of several crimes including communication with
Saturn, and was sentenced to death. The observatory was then destroyed in 1125
A.D. and the personnel were forced to flee for their lives.
1259 A.D. Iran An observatory was built for the famous Persian astronomer, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.
The patron of the observatory was Mongol ruler, Hulagu, who was addicted to
astrology. The observatory, built upon a flattened hill, was named Maragha
observatory. The observatory included an extensive library and many instruments
set up in the open air.
1420 A.D. Central Asia Ulugh Beg (1394-1449), noted astronomer, had an observatory built at Samarkand
in central Asia. The observatory was a 3-story building, but also contained
instruments that were outdoors. Ulugh Beg's observatory produced astronomical
tables that included a catalogue of over 1,000 stars. Ulugh Beg succeeded to the
trhone of the province of Transoxiana in 1447 upon the death of his father. He was
murdered in 1449 by an assassin hired by his son 'Abd al Latif. By then, his
observatory had enjoyed three decades of existence. And he is remembered as
perhaps the most important observational astronomer of the 15th century.
1543 A.D. Poland Copernicus publishes his heliocentric theory of the Universe.
1603 A.D. Germany Johann Bayer introduces Bayer designation of stars, assigning Greek letters to stars,
still in use today.
1608 A.D. Netherlands Hans Lippershey, a Dutch spectacles maker invents the telescope.
1609 A.D. Italy Galileo uses telescope for astronomical purposes. He discovers 4 Jovian moons,
the Moon's craters and the Milky Way galaxy.
1609 A.D. Germany Kepler's First and Second Laws of Planetary Motions are announced.
1619 A.D. Germany The Third Law of Planetary Motion is announced by Kepler in his work Harmonice
Mundi (Harmony of the World).
1656 A.D. Netherlands Christian Huygens discovers Saturn's rings and Titan, the fourth satellite of Saturn.
1666 A.D. Italy Martian polar ice caps are noted by Cassini.
1668 A.D. England The first reflecting telescope was built by Newton.
1669 A.D. Italy Geminiano Montanari discovers the star Algol is not steady in brightness, thus
recognizing the first variable star.
1675 A.D. France While in Paris, Danish astronomer Ole Romer measures the speed of light.
1675 A.D. France Cassini discovers that Saturn's rings are split into two parts, so that today the gap is
called the "Cassini Division".
1687 A.D. England Newton publishes his theory of universal gravitation in the work Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica. This is seen to be the start of Modern Astronomy.
1705 A.D. England Halley correctly predicts the return of a comet (Halley's comet) in 1758.
1758 A.D. Germany Johann Palitzsch observes Halley's comet as predicted by Halley in 1705.
1781 A.D. France Messier discovers galaxies, nebula and star clusters while looking for comets. He
compiles a catalogue of these objects (Messier objects).
1842 A.D. Austria Discovery of the 'Doppler Effect' by Austrian physicist and
mathematician, Christian Doppler.
1843 A.D. Germany Samuel Heinrich Schwabe describes the sunspot cycle.
1846 A.D. Germany Johann Galle observes and discovers Neptune. His observations were prompted by
mathematical calculations by French astronomer Joseph Leverrier and English
astronomer John Couch Adams.
1857 A.D. Russia Rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovskii was born. Tsiolkovskii's work in early
rocketry earned him the title of "Father of Astronautics". Many of his proposals
concerning rocketry were later put into use including: use of liquid hydrogen and
liquid oxygen as rocket fuel and multi-stage rocket design for achieving Earth orbit
or interplanetary flight.
1860-63 A.D. England The beginning of spectral analysis of stars by Sir William Huggins
1872 A.D. U.S.A. Henry Draper takes a photograph of the stellar spectrum of Vega. This is the first of
its kind.
1877 A.D. U.S.A. Asaph Hall discovers Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars.
1878 A.D. Jupiter The Great Red Spot on Jupiter becomes prominent.
1905 A.D. California Mount Wilson Observatory was established for study of the Sun.
1905 A.D. Germany Albert Einstein introduces special Theory of Relativity in paper Electrodynamics of
Moving Bodies.
1911-14 A.D. Denmark, U.S.A. Hertzsprung and Russel introduce H-R diagram that shows how the characteristics
of stars are related.
1916 A.D. Germany Albert Einstein introduces his general Theory of Relativity.
1923 A.D. U.S.A. Hubble shows that galaxies exist outside the Milky Way galaxy.
1926 A.D. U.S.A. Robert Goddard uses first liquid rocket fuel.
1927 A.D. Netherlands Oort shows the center of the Milky Way galaxy is in Sagittarius.
1958 A.D. U.S.A. Explorer 1 launched. This was the first U.S. satellite to orbit the Earth.
1961 A.D. Russia Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space!
1962 A.D. U.S.A. John Glenn becomes first American man to orbit Earth.
1966 A.D. The Moon First non crash landings on the Moons by Luna 9 (Russian) and Surveyor I (U.S.A.)
1969 A.D. The Moon Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the Moon as part of Apollo 11 mission.
1970 A.D. Venus The Russian Venera 7 becomes first to land softly on the surface of Venus.
1972 A.D. U.S.A. The U.S. launches Pioneer 10, the first satellite destined for Jupiter.
1974 A.D. Ethiopia "Lucy", a hominid living over 3 million years ago, is unearthed.
1974 A.D. Near Mercury The U.S. Mariner 10 probe transmits the first image of Mercury.
1978 A.D. U.S.A. Discovery of Charon, the moon of Pluto, by James Christy and Robert Harrington
1980 A.D. Near Saturn U.S. Voyager 1 sends back first images of Saturn and its rings to Earth.
1990 A.D. U.S.A. Hubble Space Telescope put into orbit from space shuttle Discovery.
1992 A.D. Vatican City The Vatican under Pope John Paul II announces that the Catholic Church erred in
condmening Galileo's work that proved that the work of Copernicus was valid,
mainly that the planets circle the Sun and not the Earth.
1999 A.D. U.S.A. Chandra X-ray Observatory is put into orbit. Col. Eileen Collins becomes first
woman shuttle commander.
1999 A.D. U.S.A. NASA loses the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander.
2000 A.D. U.S.A. Space Shuttle Endeavor makes a detailed, global map of Earth
2000 A.D. Asteroid Eros The NEAR spacecraft reaches asteroid Eros.